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Wiki Policies
Basics In this policy there are sections relating to specific points, but here are some general rules: *'Be civil'. Treat others as you would have them treat you — even if they are new. We were all new once. *'Assume good faith' *'Always be polite' - do not feed trolls and do not lower yourself to the levels of others - rise above them. *Irony, sarcasm and jokes do not come across as well in writing as when face to face. Be careful choosing the words you write: what you mean might not be what others understand. Likewise, be careful how you interpret what you read: what you understand might not be what others mean. *'Do not ignore' legitimate posts from other users where a response may be desired. It is only polite to take the time to respond to someone who has taken the time to contact you *'Be prepared to apologize'. In animated discussions, we may say things we later wish we had not. Say so. Forgive and forget. *'Give praise' when due. Everybody likes to feel appreciated, especially in an environment that often requires compromise. *Help mediate disagreements between others. *'Compromise'. When reverting other people's edits, give a rationale for the revert, and be prepared to enter into a discussion over the edits in question. Calmly explain your thinking and work towards a compromise. *'All editors are equal'. No one is more important than anyone else. No one gets any special treatment, including admins. *'Be bold.' If you know something is wrong, correct it. If you think you could word something better, do it. If an article has a glaring deficiency, fill it. Even if your first attempt isn't golden, you can fix it later or someone else will come along and fix it for you. Don't be afraid to screw up. We are all guilty of occasionally not following the best conduct, but try to move on and be as best an editor as you can. Usernames Usernames should never be offensive, misleading, disruptive or promotional. This also prohibits impersonating other users. Personal Space Generally speaking, your userpage and any sub-pages of it are your space to put whatever you want - so long as it doesn't offend people. Traditionally, your userpage is your place to introduce yourself to the community and post things about yourself - which country you live in, your experience with empires & allies, etc. - so that other members can get to know who you are and can get a background on your editing. Personal images are allowed, but are discouraged. Just remember that no inappropriate images should be uploaded. While not prohibited, users are warned against posting compromising or private personal information about themselves - such as names or pictures. While possible to remove from the edit history, these details should not be posted freely. It is generally considered best practice not to edit another user's userpage or their sub-pages without their consent, unless correcting a minor error in, for example, spelling or coding. Good Faith Assume that when an editor makes an edit, they were trying to help the wiki, not to vandalise it. Since anyone can edit, we must assume that most people who work on the wiki are trying to help it, not hurt it. When you see a user make an edit that you think may not be up to standards or is a stub, don't criticize them on it or delete what they put. Just politely correct it. Think about what the editor's intentions were before judging them. Misspelled words or bad grammar are not to be considered vandalism; many editors are accustomed to writing short terms common on internet chat pages and areas of a similar nature. The good faith rule means that we do not assume they were trying to vandalize or create bad pages on purpose, but instead, they were attempting to contribute to the wiki and should be commended for the effort. If someone made a unconstructive edit, consider using talk pages to explain yourself and politely help the user to more constructively edit in the future. This can avoid problems and prevent them from escalating. Be patient with newcomers. They may not know how to edit a wiki or what's supposed to be added as content. Actions inconsistent with good faith include constant vandalism and lying. If you have spotted obvious vandalism by any user, this rule does not apply. Civility Incivility consists of personal attacks, rudeness, disrespectful comments, and aggressive behavior that disrupts the site and/or leads to unproductive stress and conflict. Editors are human, capable of mistakes, so a few minor incidents of incivility are not in themselves a major concern. However, a studied pattern of incivility is disruptive and unacceptable, and may result in blocks if it rises to the level of harassment or personal attacks. A single act of incivility can also cross the line if it is severe enough: for instance, extreme verbal abuse or profanity directed at another contributor, or a threat against another person can all result in blocks without consideration of a pattern. In general, be non-retaliatory in dealing with incivility. If others are uncivil, do not respond in kind. If necessary, point out gently that you think the comment might be considered uncivil. Bear in mind that the editor may not have considered it uncivil - standards vary, so assume good faith. Consider too the option of ignoring isolated examples of incivility. The use of profanity and offensive language should be discouraged. We all hear words used by the game characters and other players via online play that can be offensive, and though it may be acceptable among some in online play and when hanging out with your friends, doing such is not acceptable here. Using such language in an article, including in a quote, is also strictly forbidden. Profane quotes should not be used. Harassment and attacks, on this wiki, on Wikia chat or even elsewhere, are strictly forbidden. If a user harasses another user, disciplinary action will be taken. Not all insults have the same magnitude. Responses, including blocks, must take into account context, intentions and magnitude. For details on blocks, see below. Don't be a dick When participating in community discussions or conversing with other users, never go out of your way to intentionally irritate or attack other users. Doing such can be considered a personal attack, depending on the circumstances. Purposefully inciting conflict and thus causing a flame war is counterproductive and might result in being blocked. In addition, when making a point in a community discussion, do not illustrate your point in such a manner that is detrimental to the wiki. Make your point, but never go overboard in doing so. Sockpuppetry Sockpuppetry is defined as a single person using multiple Wikia accounts (sockpuppets). This is generally frowned upon, but may be acceptable in certain circumstances, such as: *'Security:' Since public computers can have password-stealing trojans or keyloggers installed, users may register an alternative account to prevent the hijacking of their main accounts. *'Maintenance:' An editor might use an alternative account to carry out maintenance tasks. *'Bots:' Bot accounts, controlled by another account, are not considered sockpuppets. *'Compromised accounts:' If you have lost the password to an existing account, or you know or suspect that someone else has compromised your account, you may well want to create a new, uncompromised account, especially if you cannot gain access to the original account. You may well wish to ask an admin to block the old, compromised account It is always best to declare any legitimate alternative accounts you control - for whatever reason - so that they can be linked back to your main account - taking away the possibility of using the accounts for abuse without them being linked back to you. This becomes unacceptable when sockpuppets are used to: *Conduct prohibited activities without them being traced back to your primary account *Get around a block on another account *Manipulate the outcome of a vote This also includes simply logging out and editing from an anonymous IP to avoid recognition. In the event of proven sockpuppeting, all accounts associated with a single person should be blocked, depending on the severity of the activities for which the sockpuppeting was used. Trolling and Flaming A troll is defined as someone who posts controversial and usually irrelevant or off-topic messages in an online community with the intention of baiting other users into an emotional response or to generally disrupt normal on-topic discussion. '' The empires and allies Wiki has its fair share of trolls and vandals, just like other wiki communities. It is understandable to not like editors who purposefully disrupt the wiki. However, from unregistered users to trusted bureaucrats, no one has the right to personally attack vandals or trolls. No matter how much damage the unconstructive edits or flame wars may have caused, all that is necessary is to deal with the user and move on. Attacking such trolls or vandals is fruitless and counterproductive; doing so will usually encourage them to come back for more. '''Don't feed the trolls'! Similarly, flaming is defined as hostile and insulting interaction between Internet users. A flame war results when one or more users engages in provocative responses to the originally posted flamebait, drawing in many users and overshadowing the original discussion if left unchecked. As a result of its hostile nature, flaming is strictly prohibited here. Most often found amongst blog comments, flame wars are very disruptive. Anybody who is found to be responsible for hostile activity in such a manner will be warned and may face disciplinary action over the incident. Blogs which may incite flaming should be discouraged and should always accompany a warning not to engage in such activities from either the author or an admin. If a blog is attracting a large amount of flaming, or seemingly serves purely to incite such activities, the ability to comment on a blog may be withdrawn by an admin. Praise Good users deserve recognition - That is one of the basic principles of a good wiki,. The most basic way to praise the contributions of another user is to simply leave a friendly note on their talk page thanking them. If they're doing well, tell them. Discipline The following section outlines our policy regarding disciplinary action. If a user's behavior is out of order, they may be prevented from editing. This is termed a 'block'. There are some basic principles behind blocking: *Registered users, i.e. those who have made an account, should be given more serious punishments than anonymous users - they should know better *'Cool-down blocks' are unadvised, but not prohibited *Anybody who has a conflict of interest shouldn't block anyone. If somebody needs a block, warn them and then get another, independent, admin to review weather to block or not *Blocks are designed to prevent further abuse and to highlight the inappropriateness of actions - not to simply punish. As such, they should allow the user an opportunity to return and edit constructively once their block expires. *For minor offenses, warnings should always precede blocks. *When blocking, always explain to a user why they have been blocked, how long they have been blocked for and how they may appeal. Below are defined several levels of offense seriousness. The actual action taken in each case is at the admin's discretion, but should follow the guidelines below: Minor *Article vandalism *Blanking articles *Creating spam articles *Minor personal attack(s) *Trolling, flaming or spamming comments on blog posts Personal attacks, trolling and flaming in Wikia chat will result in a chat-ban. The length of such bans should be the same as the respective block length had such activity occurred on the wiki itself. Chat offenses are not limited to chat-bans, and may result in blocks too. Moderate *Vulgar or sexual edits to articles *Several personal attacks, or a single, more serious personal attack *Blanking multiple pages within a short time period *Creating vulgar spam articles, or multiple spam articles *Prolonged or seriously disruptive flaming Major *Racist, sexist, hateful or discriminatory personal attacks or statements *Sexually inappropriate statements, especially about another editor *Multiple major personal attacks *Blanking or seriously vandalizing multiple (10+) pages in a short time period For these, a 1 month block will be immediately issued from the discovery of the infraction. Depending on seriousness, and at the admin's discretion, blocks can be raised much more. If after a month-long block the user still re-offends, blocks of up to 1 year may be issued. Infinite blocks should never be used. Protection The majority of pages on all Wikia should remain publicly editable, and not protected. Pages may, however, be temporarily or permanently protected for specific reasons (see protection levels below). Uses *Protecting highly vandalised pages, such as the Main Page on large wikis. *Maintaining the integrity of the site's logo and favicon. *Maintaining the integrity of key copyright and license pages. *Protecting the interface and system messages in the MediaWiki namespace (these are protected automatically) A temporary protection is used for: *Enforcing a "cool down" period to stop an "edit war", upon request. *Protecting a page or image that has been a recent target of persistent vandalism or persistent edits by a banned user. There is no need to protect personal .css and .js pages like user/monobook.css or user/cologneblue.js. Only the accounts associated with these pages (and admins) are able to edit them. (For more information on using these pages, see the help page on Central). Rules #Do not make the common mistake of protecting pages unnecessarily. For example, do not protect a page simply because it is the Main Page. #Do not edit a temporarily protected page, except to add a notice explaining why the page is protected. #Do not protect a page you are involved in an edit dispute over. Admin powers are not editor privileges - admins should only act as servants to the user community at large. #Avoid favoring one version of the article over another, unless one version is vandalism. #Temporarily protected pages should not be left protected for very long. #Talk pages and user talk pages are not protected except in extreme circumstances. #The protection of a page on any particular version is not meant to express support for that version and requests should therefore not be made that the protected version be reverted to a different one. Protection Levels These icons may appear at the to right corner of an article. Category:Policy